A trial has been scheduled for a UK suspect accused of killing three girls in Taylor Swift's dance class – National
A teenager accused of killing three girls and injuring 10 others in a stabbing incident at Taylor Swift's class in England this summer is scheduled to go on trial early next year, a judge said Wednesday.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, will stand trial on January 20 at Liverpool Crown Court on three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and others relating to possession of the poison ricin and possession of an al-Qaida pamphlet.
Family members and friends of the girls who were killed and injured, as well as one of the class teachers who was seriously injured, were in person at the hearing as Rudakubana appeared on video from Belmarsh prison in south London.
Rudakubana, who has not yet entered his plea, continued to refuse to speak in court as he has done in previous hearings. He pulled his shirt over his face and did not want to reveal himself or acknowledge the judge.
“I know you can hear me because the police officer behind you said I can be heard,” said Justice Julian Goose when Rudakubana did not respond.
Get daily world news
Get the day's top news, politics, economics, and current affairs, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The trial is expected to last four to six weeks. Another hearing was scheduled for Dec. 12.
Rudakubana was charged with murdering three girls in August – Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 – and stabbing 10 other people on July 29 in the seaside town of Southport in northern England.
He was indicted last month on additional charges of manufacturing the biological poison, ricin, and possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism by having a letter written on his computer.
The police said that the stabbing of people had not been considered as acts of terrorism because the cause was not yet known.
The stabbing prompted far-right activists to lash out at immigrants and Muslims after social media falsely identified Rudakubana – who was not named at the time – as an asylum seeker who had just arrived in Britain by boat. Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants.
Riots spread throughout England and Northern Ireland for a week. More than 1,200 people have been arrested for this scandal and hundreds have been arrested.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
